Synchronising Music

Post by **lancecarr** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 3:19 am

There have been a few posts recently of users woes regarding synchronising music to what is displayed in the video.
One way of doing this is visually by looking at the wav form in the timeline and trying to work out the peaks that correspond to the beat of the music.
Another method invloves tapping to the music to mark the beat in VS11 or doing the same thing by tapping in chapter points in VS10.
A handy tool for this process is a beats per minute counter that can analyse a music file and calculate the BPM for that track making synchronisation a more mathematical concept.
Thefollowing link is to one of many free beat analysers:

http://www.mixmeister.com/download_freestuff.html
Enjoy!

Bill Carson · Post by **Bill Carson** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 7:09 pm

I found another solution for syncing the sound to the clips.

MixMeister gave me wrong numbers. The "sync to music" in the auto slide show was also very wrong. I even tried playing the musing and recording my voice counting beats so that it could be displayed in audio view, but the music track (U2's "One") got progressively more distorted and out of sync with my voice after a minute or two... (maybe 1 gig of memory isn't enough)

So what worked well was just playing the sound track and placing chapter points every 4th beat as it played. It was real easy! Just make sure that the timeline is not too far zoomed in or out or it's hard to hit the beat location. I wasn't always 100% accurate, but more than enough for my needs. Also putting named cue points at about a dozen spots where a specific effect is needed is working well so far.

This is my first video btw. Video Studio is MUCH more than I expected.

Thanks,
Bill

tommytucker · Post by **tommytucker** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 7:20 pm

There is also an MS8 technique that was explained to me via link in another post. I assume what you are doing placing on 4th beat stops the timeline as you are listening and placing the Chapter point? That was my main issue, but it can be dealt with there. Does anyone know if cue points in 11 allows you to move along the track and place cues without it stopping the flow? I was not able to click on the actual timeline point to place a chapter in 10+, but the Chapter Point bar icon above ripple editing in 10+ seems to allow that a bit easier and more accurately. Still stops the project at that point be then adding chapter point as cue and clicking play again works, not elegantly, but works. Any further advice appreciated.

Bill Carson · Post by **Bill Carson** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:16 pm

tommytucker wrote:I assume what you are doing placing on 4th beat stops the timeline as you are listening and placing the Chapter point?

No, the music clip keeps playing as you mark Cue or Chapter points so it's easy to finish marking up a song in 10 minutes or so, even going back to correct errors. The thin row where the cue/chapter points are marked is just under the timeline, and hitting the above timeline "will" stop the playback.

I'm just a few days into the eval, and was really happy that it let me do this...
Bill

LGO · Post by **LGO** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 10:00 pm

I'm with lance. To do it precisely, you have to start by making a visual of the music to see the highs and lows.

I did that exact thing a 100 years ago when I was using VS 3 and it worked like a champ. Over 200+ slides and video smippets for a 5 minute song.

Was it time consuming? A little.

Was it tedious? A bit.

Was it perfectly synched? You bet your #$$ it was.

It all depends upon how close to "synchronized" you want to be. No affordable software will do it like you yourself can when visualizing the wav form.

tommytucker · Post by **tommytucker** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:12 pm

What version of VS are you using to do this? You are clicking on the timeline with mouse or some keystroke?

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:22 am

Just a note on mixMeister.
It will initially report the BPM if it is already part of the tag on the music file. This may often be wrong, get MixMeister to re-analyse and you will get the right calculation.

Bill Carson · Post by **Bill Carson** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:39 am

tommytucker wrote:What version of VS are you using to do this? You are clicking on the timeline with mouse or some keystroke?

The version is probably the latest because it's still in 30 day demo, (11 plus?)

To place the Chapter/Cue points, I'm using a mouse and clicking a narrow horizontal band just below the timeline

Bill Carson · Post by **Bill Carson** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:48 am

lancecarr wrote:Just a note on mixMeister.
It will initially report the BPM if it is already part of the tag on the music file. This may often be wrong, get MixMeister to re-analyse and you will get the right calculation.

You know, you're right. My math was bad. mixMeister was reporting the right number, pretty much aligning with what I marked.

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:29 am

Unfortunately my math is also the weak link in the chain when using this method!

tommytucker · Post by **tommytucker** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:32 am

been looking for to add a 'cue' point in VS10+ with having to use a mouse to follow the point of insertion along with the music. Did not find this in the help file, but if you are trying to add cue points while listening to the music, hit F5.

Post by **lancecarr** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:40 am

tommytucker you are a genius! Some of us have searched high and low on the keyboard for that shortcut. Obviously we didn't search quite high enough! Thank-you!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:43 am

Please view:
VS 9/10: Changing slideshow slides to beat of music

Creating a Ken Burns Effect with VideoStudio

Alludo USER to USER Web Board

Synchronising Music

Synchronising Music

Thanks for the additional advice

Re: Thanks for the additional advice

Regarding Bill Carson post and response

Re: Regarding Bill Carson post and response

experimenting...just came across a keyboard shortcut I have